College Life
by elan0rjoy
Summary: There's this amazing list on Tumblr that consists of realisitc AU college prompts for your OTP and they made me happy and I thought I'd share some of them with you. This is literally just me having fun with some great prompts. Prompt 1: You live above me and I'm going to murder you if you don't stop throwing parties on Sunday nights.
1. Prompt 1: Introduction

**Prompt: **You live above me and I'm going to murder you if you don't stop throwing parties on Sunday nights.

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><p>Tessa took a deep breath and squared her shoulders before knocking firmly on the door. Her heart was pounding, which was ridiculous, given the situation. It was like she was bad guy here. She just wanted to, somehow, reach some common ground.<p>

At least, she would have if they'd answer the damn door.

She was just about to turn to leave, a strange feeling of relief and annoyance at the missed opportunity, when the door opened. Her prepared speech caught in her throat when she saw the boy at the door. Even though he was obviously incredibly hungover, he was beautiful. That was the only way to describe him, especially considering that he was only wearing pajama pants and his dark hair was adorably rumpled. She halfway considered making up an excuse and running away. He was _that_ gorgeous.

But then she thought her eight a.m. class and the quiz she'd failed because she'd been able to hear the music from his party and the constant thump of dancing feet and the fight that happened somewhere around three in the morning and she got angry all over again.

"Good morning." Her voice came out cheerier than she would have liked, but then he flinched and raised his hand to cradle his head and she realized how very hung over he was and almost smiled.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" he groaned as he leaned against the doorframe.

"Nine fifteen. I decided to stop by after my eight o'clock class." She was smiling, in spite of herself, because she was so pleased that she'd obviously woken him up and it gave her a small sense of poetic justice. "I live below you."

He looked at her blankly.

"I live below you," she repeated, this time just a little bit more loudly, just to watch him flinch. "And I have an eight o'clock class. On Mondays."

"And…?" He squinted his bright blue eyes at her like he was trying to solve a particularly difficult puzzle.

"And your parties on Sundays are going to make me crazy." She was still smiling, but the words came out tight. She hated that she was having this conversation in the first place. She knew that college was a place where you were supposed to have fun and let loose every now and then. Which she did. Or, at least, she thought about doing that. She didn't want to be _that _girl. And yet, here she was…And, he was still looking at her like she was an alien species. She felt herself deflate just a bit.

"It's just that, I have this class at eight on Mondays, and I have to well in it in order to get into this internship. I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is and my professor gives out these impossible quizzes and I can't bloody study, or hell, _sleep_ with your music and the shouting and the stomping, plus I don't have the money for noise cancelling headphones, and the library closes at nine on Sundays, so I was just hoping that maybe you could just _not_ throw parties on Sunday nights?"

The words fell out her mouth in a rush and when she stopped, she found, to her horror, that there were tears gathering in her eyes. At some point during her speech, he'd straightened up and cocked his head to the side. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her hands were shaking. God, she hated confrontation and he was looking at her like she'd grown an extra head. She took a deep breath and was about to ask him if there was some way they could compromise when he shut the door in her face.

She gaped at the closed door and halfway considered pounding on it until he came back to it and handled the conversation like an adult. How many words had he even said to her? Ten? She stood in front of door fuming for a good tne minutes trying to determine the best course of action. In the end, she stomped back to her apartment and angrily made coffee while she listened for any sort of noise from the floor above her.

She fumed for the rest of the day, nearly biting the head off of anyone who tried to talk to her. When she got back from her late shift, there was a gift bag on the welcome mat outside her apartment. The tiny card attached to the handle had one word written on it in looping script: "_Sorry._"

Inside the bag was a brand new pair a Bose noise cancelling headphones.


	2. Prompt 2: Tornado Warning

**Prompt 2: **_Every single table in the union is full, do you mind if I just sit here for a while/What do you mean we're under a tornado warning?_

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><p>Will looked across the room and remembered why he hated eating at the Cantina. The entire place was crammed with students talking at obnoxiously loud levels while they stuffed cheap pizza and burgers in their faces. It was really quite a feat that they somehow managed to be <em>this<em> loud while eating _that _fast. And, of course, there wasn't a single open table in the whole dining room.

He scanned the room again and spotted a free chair the furthest corner of the room and, in spite of the fact that most of the table was blocked by a wall, booked it over there. He jerked the chair out from the table, but his triumphant whoop died on his lips when he saw the rest of the table. More specifically, when he saw the girl sitting on the side of the table that had been previously obscured by the wall.

It was her.

He cringed as she looked up from her book, annoyance clearly written all over her face, and thought about running away and just eating his lunch outside. But he remembered that it was a particularly brutal wind that had driven him into the Cantina and decided to take his chances with her. Besides, it had been weeks since she'd shown up on his door step. Maybe she wouldn't remember him.

"Um, hi…" he started. She was much prettier now that the sun wasn't assaulting his hungover eyes from directly behind her head. She had thick, dark hair (which he hadn't remembered) and bright grey eyes (which he hadn't been able to forget) that were looking up at him expectantly. Expectant and still annoyed.

"Hello," her voice was wary. Her expression didn't change. Shit. She didn't remember him. He wondered if he'd left the headphone at right door and cursed himself. If she didn't have the headphones, then his parties were probably still exceptionally loud. He had, however, made an effort to be quiet on Sunday nights. "Can I, erm, sit with you? There's literally no other open tables."

She glanced around the room briefly and nodded, though her face was more apprehensive now than annoyed. He tried to give her a friendly smile as he sank down into the seat across from her. She didn't exactly return his smile, but the annoyance and apprehension slipped from her expression.

"What're you reading?" he asked as he dug into his grilled cheese sandwich.

"_The Tenant of Wildfell Hall_," she replied, taking a sip of her coffee. Her voice was impossibly quiet, not at all like it'd been when she been standing on his front stoop. He had to lean close to hear her, which he didn't exactly mind.

"Brit Lit II?" he asked. He had a copy of the same novel on his desk.

"Yeah, with Dr. Frank."

"I've got her on Tuesdays and Thursdays," he explained in response to her quizzical expression. "Do you agree with her opinion about Anne being the best author out of the Bronte sisters?"

Her eyes sparked at this and he felt his heart stutter in his chest. "Of course not," she started. "I mean, Anne's great and Tenant is really incredible, but _Jane Eyre_ will always be-"

Her impassioned reply was cut off by a blaring siren, coupled with flashing lights. He cursed and she looked at him with wide eyes. "What's going on?" He could barely hear her voice over the sirens and the consequent shouts of the confused students crowding the room.

"I think it's a tornado warning," he shouted back.

"Are you serious?" she cried. At his nod, she cursed too and jumped up, stuffing her books into her bag.

He stood too and grabbed her arm. "What are you doing?"

"I have class in ten minutes!" she yelled, "I need to get to the chem building before it gets too bad outside."

"Are you serious?" He was standing too close to her and he could smell the perfume of her hair. He realized that he was still holding onto her arm and that the skin just above her elbow was ridiculously soft. "There's a _tornado _warning. We need to take cover!"

She started to pull away from him. "But-"

"But nothing," he muttered, half to her and half to himself before he tightened his grip on her arm and pulled her beneath the table they'd just vacated. She squeaked in indignation, but stayed put when he let go of her to arrange the chairs in a blockade around them.

"I don't understand how that's going to help," she said when he was done. They were so close together that she didn't have to yell for him to hear her.

"Well, this wall behind us is an inner wall," he explained, his voice surprisingly calm, "so, we're pretty safe with it at our backs. The chairs will help protect us from any flying debris."

She stared at him. "This, of course, would be assuming that a tornado actually strikes?"

"Well, yeah," he replied. She seemed to find this an acceptable answer and wrapped her arms around her knees, trying to make herself smaller. He realized, belatedly, that he was taking up a lot of the real estate beneath their table and that she was rather uneasy. He tried to make himself smaller and thanked God he'd showered that morning.

They sat there in silence as the sirens continued to blare and the din in the room crescendoed. He was about to stick his head out from beneath the table to see what was going on in the rest of the room when a thunderclap shook the building. Unlike most of the other girls in the room, she didn't make a sound afterwards, but she jumped and bumped into him.

"Thank you!" she blurted out, turning her head so that her face was only centimeters from his and making his heart stutter again. "For the headphones, I mean. They're the only thing that's kept me sane this semester."

"You wouldn't happen to have them on you now, would you?" he half-joked. She smiled at him for the first time since he'd interrupted her book.

"I wish," she winces. "But it was a really sweet gesture, especially towards the deranged girl who showed up on your doorstep to yell at you first thing in the morning."

"Hey, you could have called the cops. I certainly appreciated your discretion."

She smiles again before leaning her head against the wall and closing her eyes. He doesn't turn his face away from her. Instead, he examines her silhouette and gets distracted by the way her long lashes fall against her cheek.

"What do you think about the Brontes?" she asks, her eyes still closed.

Forty-five minutes later, they are in a heated discussion about the merits of Romanticism in British literature against it in American literature when the sirens stop. They both look up in surprise as the room starts to buzz with student voices and Katy Perry picks up her song about California Girls on the speakers.

He pushes the chairs out and stands, grateful for the chance to stretch out his legs. When he turns to reach to help her up, and possibly ask her out for coffee sometime, she's already gone.


	3. Prompt 3: The Guy With the Bibles

**Prompt 3: **_The guy with the Bibles on the quad has cornered me and is screaming about hell, please rescue me._

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><p>She technically didn't have anything else to do this afternoon. She'd just finished her last class of the day and, for the first time in a month, she didn't have to work that night. She didn't even have a mountain of homework waiting for her at home, which was a small miracle. Still, that didn't mean that she'd rather be doing anything than standing here right now.<p>

"What would happen to your soul if you stepped into the street on your way home today, got hit by a bus and died?" The boy asking the question was standing too close to her, but every time she backed away, he just got closer, It made her wonder if personal boundaries was a subject covered in the Bible.

"Erm…I-I guess I don't know," she said, and then mentally kicked herself as his eyes lit up.

"Would you like reassurance that your soul would go to heaven if you died today? That you could experience peace and love forever and ever in heaven?"

"Uhhh…"

"It says here in Romans that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Do you _want_ to pay for your sins with death?"

"Well, I-"

"Trust me when I say you don't. Because without God's grace, all there is when you die is Hell. Do you know what Hell is?"

"I mean I've heard of it, yeah, but-"

"Hell is suffering and damnation! Hell is pain and darkness! Hell is-"

"Hey, baby, sorry I'm late." An arm slid smoothly around her waist and pulled her into the best smelling shirtfront in the world. A scent that she, surprisingly, was familiar with. When she looked up, she saw that it was _him_, her upstairs neighbor and tornado buddy. Quite suddenly, she found herself believing there was a God.

"Oh, uh, hi," she stuttered, looking up into those incredible blue eyes. "What, um, took you so long?"

"You know, Dr. Gage can't stick to a schedule to save his life. John Locke this, Immanuel Kant that. Were you waiting long?"

"Just a bit. Luckily, I ran into Chris here and he kept me company," she replied, shooting the bewildered boy a smile.

The boy, whose arm was still around her, turned to the Bible thumper. "Thanks for entertaining her, man, but I'll take it from here." And with that, he pulled her away from the dumbfounded Christian and down the sidewalk, still chatting about Dr. Gage's discussion of Kant's works on the beautiful and the sublime. He kept his arm around her until they turned a corner.

"Did he follow us?" she asked, glancing behind them.

"I think we're in the clear," he replied, dropping his arm from around her. "If we're going to keep meeting like this, I think we should introduce ourselves. I'm Will."

"Tessa," she said, sticking out her hand. His fingers around her were warm and calloused and she might have held onto them a little longer than was actually appropriate for an introduction. He didn't seem to notice.

"Nice to have a name to go with the face," he said.

"Yeah, it is." She didn't mention how she'd tricked their RA to telling her who he was the day after the incident in the Cantina, but hadn't been able to get up to nerve to go back upstairs and actually speak with him. "You heading home too?"

"Um, yeah."

They walked in silence for the rest of the block. It was getting chilly after the sun had gone down and she found herself wishing that his arm was still around her. Which was ridiculous.

"I agree with Dr. Gage," she blurted out. He looked over at her, but didn't say anything. "About Kant's ideas regarding the sublime, I mean. Sure, it's reasonable to assume that people experience the sublime in different ways, but, to say that culture dictates how one feels when looking at the night sky or at a mountain...I mean, I'm not convinced Kant understood what it was like to look at something truly sublime."

"No, I don't think he did." Will's voice was soft, and she got the distinct impression that he wasn't talking about the same thing she was. She flushed and looked down.

"What'd you think of the group assignment in Dr. Frank's class?" she asked, remembering their conversation under the table in the Cantina.

"I think that we're a social experiment," he replied. "Did you know she's writing a book on how to have more effective group collaborations in the classroom?"

"She didn't say."

By the time that he finished explaining how he'd ended up finding their Brit Lit professor's personal blog and regaling her with some of the more sordid details contained therein, they'd reached their building. She, as was her habit, headed towards the elevator, while he walked towards the stairs. When she realized that he wasn't next to her anymore, she felt a strange sense of loss.

"Now that's just plain laziness," he said to her from the stairwell.

"I prefer to think of it as efficiency." she retorted. "Besides, my backpack is way too heavy to carry up three flights of stairs."

"That's no excuse," he called to her from halfway up the staircase.

She was seriously considering following him up the damn stairs when the elevator dinged and the doors opened. She got in and her fingers hovered over the buttons. She was half-tempted to go to his floor instead of her own and surprise him there, but she talked herself out of it. After all, if he'd wanted her company, he would have followed her onto the elevator.

She spent a good portion of that night staring at her ceiling, which was exceptionally quiet, and trying to get the scent of him out of her nose.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> It's be a loooooong time since I studied Kant or anything regarding the beautiful and/or the sublime. If there are an philiosphy majors out there, I apologize for my lack of understanding regarding _Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime_, forgive me.


	4. Prompt 4: Late Night Ride Home

**Prompt 4: We both work really late shifts and you gave me a ride home so I don't have to walk alone in the dark.**

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><p>Will felt like his brain was melting. Literally, it was like damned Ruth and her damned infatuation with damned Impressionism had somehow managed to inject him with a substance that was liquefying his brain. His Brit Lit group had been locked in a library study room for the past four hours and they'd barely accomplished anything. By some small miracle, he'd ended up in a group of exceptionally dedicated students, but the project was so big and their opinions were so different, and damned Ruth was so damned in love with Virginia Woolf that it didn't matter much.<p>

"The library's closing in five minutes," someone was saying and the others started making plans to meet up again the next day. He pulled himself out of his half-liquefied state long enough to interject that, no, he couldn't meet up before classes tomorrow morning. Not that he had anything to do prior to his classes the next day. There was just no way in hell he was going to let these people be the last ones he talked to at night and the first ones he talked to in the morning. Unfortunately, that meant that they'd have to spend another evening in the library.

There was a little more quabbling over specific times as they made their way to the front doors. And then someone brought up that they could maybe split a pizza or something tomorrow night. But no, damned Ruth was also a damned vegan, so they determined that they'd just bring their own food. Without realizing they'd done it, they stopped in front of the library's main exit to hash out details of who was reading what. It was only when the building's lights automatically shut off all at once that his groupmates bundled up and headed out.

"Hey! Hold the door!" a voice cried from the darkness.

Will, who was the last one out, waved his group on and held the door for the figure rushing towards him. She held a stack of books and was trying to put her coat on around them and failing miserably.

"Here, let me hold those for-" he started, but stopped abruptly when she peered up at him through a tangle of dark hair. "Tessa."

She stood up straight, her coat forgotten and dangling off of one arm. It was dark, but he was pretty sure she was blushing and it made his heartbeat stutter.

"Will, um, hi."

"Hello yourself." He stared at her for a full minute before he realized that they were still standing in the doorframe. Fortunately, she seemed just as entranced as he was.

"Can I help you with your coat?" he asked.

"Oh, uh, yeah, that'd be great." Her voice was a little breathy and it sent tingles up and down his spine.

He turned her around and pulled her hair out of the way, his fingers brushing against her neck as he did so, before he helped her slide her free arm into her sleeve. Then, his fingers on fire from the touch of her skin, he took her books from her while she buttoned up.

"Headed home?" he asked as they exited the building, still holding her books. And then he kicked himself. Where else would she be going at one in the morning?

"Uh-huh," she said. "You?"

"Yeah."

"Oh. Um, well, you'd better give me my books back. It's a long walk and it's late."

He froze in place. "You're _walking_ home?

"Um, yes."She looked at him quizzically. A sudden surge of protectiveness pulsed through him.

"Alone? At one in the morning?"

"I have pepper spray," she said as if pepper spray was the solution to everything. "Besides, I do this at least three times a week. It's not a big deal."

"Well, you're not doing it tonight."

"I'm not?"

"Nope, I'm giving you a ride."

"Are you now?"

"I am. And I have your books, so you can't argue with me." And with that, he headed towards the parking lot. She stood, incredulous, in the middle of the sidewalk until he looked over his shoulder at her. "Come on now, it's late."

He didn't have to be facing her to see her slump in acceptance and run after him. He smiled to himself. He'd been desperate to ask her out when they'd parted ways at the stairwell, but he'd lost his nerve every time he ended up on her floor. And then a few weeks passed and they hadn't seen each other and then a month and now it was the end of the semester and he swore he wouldn't let the opportunity pass him up. He was about to open his mouth when she spoke:

"So where exactly is your car?"

"It's the one way in the back there," he said, pointing. "The parking lot was crammed when I got here, so I ended up in the furthest possible spot, but it's closer than the apartment, so…." She was no longer walking beside him. He spun around in half a panic. "Tessa?"

She was standing in a pool of light beneath a streetlamp several paces behind him and staring. It occurred to him in a rush what the situation must look like to her. Late at night, car parked as far away from any buildings as humanly possibly, just the two of them.

"No!" he cried. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is _not_ what it looks like, Tess. Trust me, I'm not that kind of guy. Please, Tessa. It's okay. Please don't pepper spray me."

She stared at him for a long moment and then burst into laughter. He froze, unsure of what to do. She caught sight of his baffled expression and laughed even harder. When she calmed, she caught up to him, still giggling.

"Wow, you jump to conclusions quickly. I stopped because I realized that I didn't check out one of the books I meant to. No biggie, I can get it tomorrow."

"Oh," was all he could say.

"Though," she said, "you did choose the absolute worst place to park. I'm pretty sure I could be halfway home by now if you'd let me walk."

"Or laying in a ditch somewhere," Will grumbled. She rolled her eyes but didn't respond.

"So you walk everywhere?" he asked.

She nodded. "Or I take the bus."

"Never bought a car?"

"Well, no. I used to have car."

"Accident?"

"Sort of. You remember the car that got set on fire and blew up during homecoming weekend?"

He did indeed. It had been big news on their campus for weeks. "That was yours?"

"Yeah."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"Insurance?"

"Not the kind that replaces your car when it gets blown up."

"Wow."

They'd reached his car and he remembered enough the the chivalry his mother had tried to instill in him to open the door for her. She reacted well, none of the second wave feminist stubbornness that often was the reaction to what his mother had told him was just good manners. She simply thanked him and accepted her books when he handed them back to her.

The drive back to their building was relatively short. They talked mostly about damned Ruth. He found out that she was in Tessa's Rhetorical Theories class and a total nuisance there too, which made him feel better about not liking her. When they were, again, at the figurative crossroads between their floors, he took the elevator with her instead and saw her safely to her door.

"I would invite you in," she said as she dug around in her bag for her keys and flashed him a grin. "But then you might get the wrong idea about me, jumping to conclusions as you do."

"We wouldn't want that now, would we?" he replied with a smile.

She found her keys and he began to panic. She was about to leave him again and he hadn't asked her out and what if he sounded like an idiot, especially after this and-

"Will?"

"What?"

"I don't usually do this kind of thing, and god knows what kind of conclusions you'll jump to from this, but I'll regret it if I don't ask, and there's this great coffee shop by the library and I was thinking that-"

"Yes," he said, cutting her off. She blinked, once, twice, her long lashes brushing against quickly flushing cheeks.

"I didn't even ask you."

"Whatever it is then, yes."

"Coffee?"

"Sure."

"Tomorrow?"

"And the day after that and the day after that." He hadn't meant to say it like that, but she was turning an adorable shade of red and smiling. He felt himself smiling like an idiot in return. "I'll pick you up at 2:30."

"Okay," she said with a grin. "Um, thanks for the ride."

"Anytime," he replied. "Good night, Tess."

She bit her lip and looked up him. He contemplated kissing her then, but decided to wait, so savor this strange feeling of elation and nerves. "Good night, Will."

He danced all the way to his apartment.

_~*~Fin~*~_

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>I actually knew a girl whose car got set on fire and blew up on Homecoming weekend. Get good insurance people.

I wanted to thank everyone who reviewed, but especially _vialovesbooks, flora017,_ and_ Guest, _my reviewers who I couldn't thank via PM. I really appreciate the fact that you all were kind enough to read my unedited fluff and review. It made my day. So thanks very much for that!


	5. Prompt 5: Waiting For Office Hours

**Prompt 5: Waiting for Office Hours**

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><p>Will sank into one of the orange vinyl chairs outside Dr. Frank's office and settled in for the long wait for his turn to discuss his final paper's latest draft. The good professor was notorious for scheduling meetings that ran over by at least thirty minutes and while he was five minutes early on the off chance that she was running on time today, he'd also brought plenty of homework with him to bide the time otherwise. He was halfway through the reading assignment for tomorrow's Rhetorical Analysis class when someone nudged his shoulder. When Will saw who it was, his face broke into an uncontrollable smile.<p>

"Hey," Tessa said, her voice soft, maybe even a little shy, and it made something inside him go soft and mushy to see her bashful. He hadn't seen her since they'd gone out for coffee earlier that week, which had gone shockingly well considering how long it had taken them to get to a date. For once, kismet had worked in their favor and they'd both been on time, the coffee place she'd brought him to had been amazing. They'd stayed there for hours, talking, reading, and playing a haphazard game of Scrabble with from the shop's board game shelf. All the L's were missing from the game, which had made playing much more difficult, especially since she was exceptionally good at realizing when he was making words up. He'd spent more money on coffee and scones than he could afford to. They'd stayed at the coffee shop until the place had kicked them out and then walked around the block holding hands three times before he remembered that they both had class in the morning. He'd walked her to her apartment and didn't kiss her goodnight, even though he'd wanted to so badly that it hurt. He had consumed so much caffeine that he didn't end up falling asleep until three in the morning, and he would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Of course, their favorable kismet didn't last. It was getting close to finals week and they had both been busy with group projects and review sessions and hadn't been able to coordinate another date. It had been less than a week since he'd seen her, but it felt like a month. Now that she was in front of him, he couldn't stop staring, the stupid grin still on his lips.

To be fair, she was completely worth staring at with her dark hair piled on top of her head and her long legs wrapped in black leggings that didn't leave much to the imagination. He hadn't noticed how graceful the slope of her neck was until now when there was only one loose curl resting lightly on it instead of the dark mass of her hair. He didn't realize he was staring until her noticed her cheeks turning pink and he tripped over his words when he responded. "Hey, erm, hi...hello there."

She sank down into the seat next to him and smiled at him, sending his heart skittering. "Final paper review?"

"That's what I was told at least," he said as he grasped at the straws of his composure. "Um, although I'm beginning to think she forgot about me."

"What time was your appointment supposed to be at?"

He checks his watch and groans. "Forty-five minutes ago."

"What?" Her face is amazingly incredulous. How had she not heard about Dr. Frank's inability to keep an appointment? The professor's lack of a timetable was a running joke across the department. Apparently, she hadn't talked to a single person in the English department though, because she was on her feet and checking the sign up sheet on the door, as if that actually mattered. "You can't be serious." She ran a finger down the list until she found his name and the corresponding time. "Oh my God, you're being serious."

"I think she said something about a short conversation with the department head. It was only supposed to take a quick minute."

"Doesn't she know we have other classes?And jobs? Does she not think we don't have better things to do with our time than sit outside her office waiting for us to grace us with her presence?" Tessa flopped back down in the chair next to him and glared at the closed office door. "I'm going to mention this on her class evaluation."

"You've never had a class with Dr. Frank before?"

"No…" She was pouting and it was adorable and he couldn't help but laugh. But then the way her lower lip jutted out made him think about how badly he wanted to bite it and his laughter died in his throat. Tessa, completely unaware about what her lower lip was doing to him, gave him a sideways glance and let out a huffy little sigh.

He wasn't thinking, wasn't even aware of what he was doing until he was leaning across the seat towards her, so close that he could smell the lavender of her hair. She'd frozen in place, her mouth still half open after her sigh and her eyes wide. His hand slipped up of its own volition and cupped the back of her head, sliding his fingers through the downy curls at the base of her neck. She exhaled softly and her eyes fluttered closed as she leaned towards him. Just as he was about to close the distance between their mouths, the office door in front of them opened.

"Will? Are you ready to discuss your paper?"

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><p><strong><em>Author's Note: <em>**_So lied about the completeness of the story. I apologize. I took a two month break from writing and used the College AU prompts to get back into the swing of writing again. The good news is that there should be two prompts (at least) after this. Yay!_


	6. Prompt 6: Can I Sleep on Your Floor?

**Prompt 6**: My roommate's boyfriend is sleeping over, so can I please sleep on your floor?

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><p><em>Part One<em>

It was late and Tessa was just leaving the library after three hours of paper writing, editing, and rewriting. Finals week had been brutal this semester and she was immensely grateful that all she had to do was turn in her paper tomorrow morning and be done with it.

She was nearly to the library doors when someone shouted at her:

"Tess! Tessa, wait up!"

She stopped just and looked over her shoulder, a smile lighting up her face when she saw who was barreling down the hallway towards her.

"I really need to get your phone number," Will said as he coasted to a stop in front of her. "It would save me a whole lot of time and effort when I need to find you."

"Is that why you chased me down?" she asked, unable to keep a smile from spreading across her face. "To get my phone number?"

"Not exactly," he started. "I mean, I probably should get your phone number too, but the reason I'm chasing you down is that my roommate's girlfriend surprised him by showing up today and she's sleeping over tonight." Here, Will cringed visibly and Tessa tried not to laugh out loud. "That part wouldn't so bad if she weren't my little sister." Her eyebrows flew up, but before she could say anything, he rambled on. "You see, the only way I won't kill Gabriel, who I actually like very much, is if I'm not there tonight." Will paused to bite his lower lip, suddenly looking a bit uncomfortable before he continued. "If there was anyone else still on campus and and if finding a decent roommate weren't bloody awful and if I didn't have to turn in this stupid paper in the morning, I wouldn't be asking you. I do know it's incredibly presumptuous, but may I please sleep on your couch?"

Tessa swallowed, hard. Her roommate, Sophie, had taken her last final the day before and was already home. The thought of her and Will spending the night alone in her apartment made a blush creep up the back on her neck. She was suddenly immensely grateful that she was wearing a scarf.

"You should know that my roommate's already gone, so it'd just be us-" Will's mouth quirked and his eyebrows waggled suggestively, making her laugh as she swatted his arm. He grabbed her hand before she could pull away, drawing her closer to him.

"I like the sound of that…" he whispered in a husky voice. She could tell he was joking. Mostly.

Rolling her eyes, she jerked her hand back and said, "I should've known you'd jump to conclusions." She let him know she was joking too with a smile. "But yes, you may stay over. I wouldn't want your roommate to die. His screams could interrupt my own studying."

He grinned and took her book bag from her. "Do you mind if I go home with you now? She's there already and, I swear, if I walk in on them doing _anything_, I will be out a roommate."

"As per your usual, you've left me without much of a choice," Tessa said, eyeballing her book bag as he slung it over his shoulder. He grinned at her and opened the door for her. She grimaced as a cold blast of winter air hit her face.

"Damn, it's cold!" Will yelped and he suddenly grabbed her hand, dragging her behind him as he took off running. "C'mon!"

By the time they reached her apartment, Tessa's limbs were tingling and every breath of cold air stung her nose and lungs, but she was also laughing as Will tried to keep them both on their feet as they ran over icy sidewalks. He had kept her hand tucked his elbow the whole way, like she were some old fashioned lady in a gown instead of a poor college student in faux leather boots and jeans.

When she unlocked the door, her hands trembled and she told herself it was from the cold and not from nerves. He was going to sleep in her house. They'd spent an entire semester living with only cheap laminate flooring and ceiling tiles between them and now he was going to spend the night on her couch.

The world was a wonderful, wonderful place.

She hung up his coat and made them both mugs of hot tea while he sat on her kitchen counter and made unhelpful suggestions about how she ought to brew it. She ignored him mostly and laughed occasionally, trying to hide the fact that she was incredibly nervous. When the tea was done, she handed him a mug and led him into the living room.

She perched on the arm of the on the faded blue sectional that she and Sophie had inherited from Sophie's parents and watched him take in the room and tried to smother her self-consciousness. He was looking at her bookcases and she wanted to explain to him that she had more at Aunt Harriet's, but she couldn't figure out how to say it without sounding ridiculous, so she sat and drank her tea silently instead. He gently ran his fingers over their spines, pausing here and there to smile at the titles. As she watched him, she found herself imagining those long fingers tangled in her hair and ghosting down her back. A shiver that had nothing to do with the cold shook her.

"This one's been on my to-read list forever," he said, setting his mug on down and pulling _The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo_ out and turning it over in his hands.

"Oh, you should! I really enjoyed it," she said, putting her half empty mug of tea on the coffee table and jumping up. "Read it during break and you should take these too…" She searched her shelves for the other two books in the series. "Here!" She pulled the books off two different places, wondering how on earth _The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest_ had ended up on the bottom shelf. She didn't realize that she was kneeling at Will's feet until she stood up and found herself nose to nose with him.

"There's a lot of cliffhangers," she whispered, only half aware of what she was saying. "It would be cruel to send you off with only the first book."

"You're very kind," he said in an equally soft voice, taking the books from her and setting them next to his mug of tea on top of the bookcase without taking his eyes off of her. She thought her bones would melt from the heat in his gaze. "I'm going to kiss you now," he whispered, his lips only millimeters away from hers, one of those long fingered hands finding it's way to cup the back of her head. "Is that alright?"

Her breath caught in her throat as his fingers threaded themselves through the hair at the base of her neck. She had so badly wanted him to kiss her while they were waiting for Dr. Frank. The professor's awful timing had made Tessa want to scream and she'd had gone through the entire discussion of her paper irrationally wanting to bite the good professor's head off. Now, it took her a long moment to stop staring at his pansy blue eyes long enough to realize he was still waiting for some sort of response from her. Without even realizing she was doing it, she licked her lips and bobbed her head in ascent.

At first, the kiss was soft a gentle brush of his lips against hers. And then it was over just as quickly as it'd begun, but his lips lingering on hers for a long moment after. His hands were on her face, the pads of his thumbs brushing against her cheeks and they were both smiling idiotically.

"Surely," she whispered against his lips once she'd caught her breath, "you wanted to kiss me more than that."

He smiled wickedly at her, his lips brushing against hers as they formed the grin. Before she could register what was happening, his lips crashed on hers and one of his arms wrapped itself tightly around her waist and she was pressed between the bookcase and his hard body and all coherent thought fled her mind. He tasted like the sugar and milk he'd dumped into his tea and his mouth was warm, even though the fingers that were in her hair were still cold against her scalp.

One of her hands was tangled in his hair and the other was pulling him closer, closer, closer to her. When his fingers found the skin that lifting her arms to wrap around him had exposed, she shuddered against him and he groaned into her mouth. She hadn't thought they could get any close and then as his fingers splayed across her bare skin, he pulled her flush against him. She could feel every angle of his body against hers and she wanted more. She wanted, no, she _needed_ his skin against hers.

She'd just begun to work at the buttons on his shirt when a loud giggle and thump from the apartment above shocked them both into jumping away from each other. Will looked dazedly up at the ceiling for a long moment before he swore softly.

"You really can hear everything that goes on up there, can't you?"


	7. Prompt 6: Part Two

Prompt 6: My roommate's boyfriend is sleeping over, so can I please sleep on your floor? Part Two

Will's attention was torn between Tessa, who had pulled away from him and had the good graces to look embarrassed and whatever it was that Gabriel Lightwood was doing to his litter sister in the apartment above them. Tessa must've saw murderous intent in his eyes, because she grabbed his arm and pulled him back into the kitchen and away from the muffled sounds in the living room.

"So...um...What did Dr. Frank think of your paper?" she asked as she deposited him in the middle of the kitchen and started searching through the cabinets. It was much quieter in here and Will was incredibly grateful for her presence of mind. He wondered if Gabriel would ever truly appreciate how lucky he was that Will had managed to find Tessa before he'd walked in on whatever was currently happening in his living room. He somehow doubted it. It took him a moment to realize that Tessa had asked him a question.

"My paper?" he asked, frowning as he tried to figure out what the question had been.

"Yeah." Her face was blocked by the cabinet door, but whatever she was grabbing off of top shelf had exposed a strip of skin between the hem of her purple henley and the waistband of her jeans just above her hip and suddenly Will was distracted for a whole new reason. "The one you were waiting to discuss with Dr. Frank the other day."

"Oh, that…" He'd never imagined that an inch of bare skin could look so enticing. But she'd found whatever she was digging in the cabinet for and her shirt had settled back to its appropriate place, leaving him a little dazed. "Um, she, uh, she didn't really like it much, actually. Said it lacked focus."

"Did you get it shaped up for tomorrow?" She'd closed the cabinet and set a box of popcorn on the counter. "I could take a look at it if you want a second set of eyes. Also, would you like some popcorn? We could watch a movie and turn the volume up very high."

"I'd like that," he muttered, shooting a glare at the ceiling. "On both counts."

"Great," she said with a smile. "Why don't you stay in here and get the popcorn started while I set the TV up?"

"I don't get to pick the movie?" he asked with a mock pout.

"Do you really want to go back into the living room without something to distract you?" she asked, arching one eyebrow elegantly.

"Good point," Will said with a cringe and grabbed the popcorn off the counter. He waited till she was in the other room and then swore again as he punched buttons on her microwave. "I'm going to kill Gabriel and then I'm going to bring him back and kill him again."

"What's that?" Tessa called from the living room.

"Nothing!" he called back. "Your microwave's just different from mine."

Two minutes later, the popcorn was done and the sounds of previews were coming from the living room. He was just emptying the bag into the mixing bowl she'd left on the counter when she returned to the kitchen. She had taken off her shoes and sweater, leaving her feet and arms bare. For some reason, her bare feet were incredibly sexy to him.

"Oh good! You're done. Do you want to grab anything else to drink before the movie starts?" She opened the fridge and began pushing things around. "I think we've got some finals week soda left in here."

"Finals week soda?" he asked with a quirk of his lips.

She pulled two cans of Coke out of the fridge. "You know, lots of sugar, lots of caffeine. Very helpful when trying to write three different final papers, but terrible if you want to get any sort of decent sleep."

"Ah." Will had drank nothing but Redbull and absurdly strong coffee for the last week and found it adorable that she considered Coke to be a finals week-only beverage. "That'd be great. Thank you."

He followed her back into the living room, where the volume on the TV was turned up to nearly deafening levels, and sat next to her on the ridiculously ugly, but shockingly comfortable sofa. She'd turned off most of the lights, so the TV was the brightest thing in the room. On the screen, cars were crashing into each other and things were exploding in huge bursts of flames.

"What are we watching?" he asked, and he had to lean in close to Tessa in order for her to hear him over the soundtrack of the home screen and he managed to catch the lavender scent of her hair as he did so.

"It's, um, actually Sophie's boyfriend's…" she replied, leaning into him without actually looking at him as she hit 'Play' on the remote. "He left it here last time he visited and I thought you might like it more than one of our movies."

"I see." She hadn't moved away and neither had he. Her eyes shone in the light from the TV screen and he had to restrain himself from grabbing her and kissing her again. "Well, thank you for the consideration."

"You are my guest," she said after a beat. She slowly sat back, carefully placing the popcorn bowl between them. "It seemed like something a gracious hostess would do."

"Ah," was all he could manage as he forced himself to relax into the couch. He wasn't sure how to proceed from here. Was he supposed to try to hold her hand now? Or pull one of those stunts from the movies and pretend to stretch so he could slip his arm around her shoulders? He immediately dismissed the later as ludicrous and holding hands in a popcorn bowl seemed like a bad strategy, so he dismissed that too and settled for being happy they were still sitting on the same piece of furniture.

He tried to pay attention to the movie, but found himself distracted every time he reached for popcorn and brushed her fingers instead. When the popcorn was gone, Tessa moved the empty bowl to the coffee table and nestled herself against his side like it was the most natural thing in the world.

His arm wrapped itself around her shoulders before he could register what was happening. Her feet were tucked beneath her and one of her hands rested lightly on his leg. "Is this okay?" she whispered, her voice almost inaudible beneath the movie's soundtrack.

"Yeah," he breathed. She laid her head on his chest and he was certain she'd be able to hear how his heart leaped. "Definitely."

"Good."

After that Will had no idea what happened in the movie. He was completely and totally transfixed by the girl tucked into his side. At one point, he found himself running his fingers through her dark hair and was horrified to realize he didn't know how long he'd been doing so. He stopped immediately and forced himself to take a drink his soda with his free hand, hoping the sugar and caffeine would make him more alert.

"You wanna know something?" she whispered, turning away from where a helicopter was exploding on the screen and tipping her face up towards him.

"Sure," he whispered back.

She bit her lip and looked up at him through long lashes. After a long moment, she said "This movie's really boring."

"Yeah it is," he replied immediately and she licked her lower lip, a quick brush of her tongue that made his mind short circuit. "Is there, uh, something you'd rather-"

She cut off his words with a kiss. Unlike the beginning of the kiss earlier, this kiss was not tentative at all. This kiss was not a gentle brush of lips against each other like the tide reaching for the shore, but a wave of passion that threatened to drown him. Her fingers were wrapped around his neck and she held him tight, her fingers splayed along his skin and her thumb against where his pulse pounded in his throat.

His free hand came up to rest on her hip and the arm that was already around her tightened so that he could reach up and tangle his fingers into her hair to deepen kiss. When he did, she made a little sound somewhere between a whimper and moan and he had to struggle to maintain some semblance of control. But then her fingers knotted themselves in his hair and she traced the seam of his lips with her tongue and it all shattered. Before he could quite register what he was doing, he'd pulled her into his across his lap so that she was straddling him and let her tongue have access to his mouth.

She hooked on of her arms around his back so that one of her hands could twine itself back into his hair, using her grip on him to pull him closer until his mouth was crushed against hers. His hands were everywhere, running along her thighs, down her arms, through her hair, along the hem of her shirt. The skin of her back was soft and warm and he couldn't help but run his fingers over the base of her spine.

And then she was arched against him, her lips tearing away from his and a soft moan escaping her as his other hand grabbed at her hip and his lips were against her throat as she ran her hands up and down his sides, his arms, his chest. Her touch was light and quick until she found the buttons on his shirt and this time nothing distracted her as she pulled at them until she was able to push his shirt off his shoulders. A moment later her shirt was over her head and on the floor and he was shocked to realize that she'd been the one to pull it off. And then she stopped.

* * *

><p>They were both panting. Will stared at her wide eyed and open mouthed and Tessa was sure that her face matched his. He'd held her hips to steady her as she pulled off her shirt and now his fingers were brushing along her skin and distracting her to the point of madness. His face was lit by the TV screen and the explosions on the screen gilded him in shades of gold, making his skin glow.<p>

"Bedroom?" she blurted out at the same time as he said "Well, that escalated quickly."

His eyebrows shot up and her heart stopped. When he didn't reply right away, she did the bravest thing she'd possibly ever done in her life and stood up. She didn't take her eyes off him as she grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet. He didn't protest when she drew herself close to him and ran her fingers along the bare skin of his chest. He didn't say a word when she stood on her tiptoes to kiss him, only wrapped his arms around her, holding her so tightly that her feet came off the ground. She couldn't help the little sigh that escaped her when their torsos connected and she'd felt all the hard, flat planes of his stomach smash against her belly and he took the opportunity to explore her mouth with his tongue.

Tessa registered that they were moving, but didn't realize that he probably knew the general idea of where her room was because his apartment was laid out exactly like hers. When he reached the end of the short hallway, he paused and set her down. His teeth grazed her ears and she felt her knees buckled as he whispered "Which one's yours?"

She it took her a moment to understand what he was asking. She didn't trust herself to speak, only inclined her head towards her bedroom door and then pulled him down for another searing kiss. He pressed her into the wall, one hand in her hair, one hand fumbling for the doorknob. And then, once again, she was off her feet and in his arms. Before she could quite comprehend what had happened, he'd set her down just inside her room and he had disentangled himself from her arms and was staring at her, his forehead the only thing touching her.

"Tess," he breathed, gently gathering her hands up in his and cradling them between their bodies. "Tessa." His hands, wrapped tightly around hers, were shaking. "I want this. You have no idea how much I want this, but-"

"But?" she drew away from him, and his eyes searched her face desperately. She was suddenly hyper conscious of the fact that she stood before him in on her bra and jeans.

"I'd like to date you properly." She felt her eyebrows try to arch themselves right off her forehead and tried very hard to arrange her face into a less shocked expression. He let go of one her hands to drag his hand over his face. "That is to say...in a...normal relationship, I wouldn't spend the night for a while. I don't want to fast forward through all those important steps between our first date and sleeping together."

"Ah…" It wasn't so much a word as it was the sound of her exhalation. She blinked and tried again. "I think I understand."

"So," he bit his lip and took her hands again. "I'm going to go back into the living room now and sleep on the couch and tomorrow I will make you breakfast and walk with you to drop our papers off, okay?"

She blinked and made herself nod.

"Alright. Good night, Tess," he whispered, kissing her lightly and stepping back into the hallway without another word.

She stared after him in a sort of daze as he went back into the living room. A minute later, she heard the TV shut off and the light from the kitchen went out. It took her another full minute to understand that he wasn't coming back. She stared into the darkness for a long time before her heartbeat returned to normal. Then, there was nothing left to do but shake her head in amusement and go to bed alone.


End file.
